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Howick and Botany Times, Wednesday, July 30, 2014 — 3
107939
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By Chris Harrowell
SCHOOL pupils avoiding class
without good reason are no longer
welcome at East Auckland’s shop-
ping centres.
An initiative by Howick Police
and the Auckland Council aims
to make it difficult for school stu-
dents to spend time hanging out at
their local shops.
Among the retail spaces involved
in the campaign are Meadowlands
Shopping Plaza, Botany Town
Centre, Highland Park Shopping
Centre and Pakuranga Plaza.
Signs are being installed at shop-
ping centres informing the public
that they are truant-free areas
between 8.30am-3.25pm.
Working to ensure the project is
successful is Highland Park com-
munity police constable Merv
Hotter.
“We want shopkeepers to not
serve pupils in uniform during
school hours,” Mr Hotter told the
Times.
“The goal is also to have them
ask the student why they aren’t
in class and to inform the relevant
school that one of its pupils is at
their store.”
Mr Hotter says pupils who have
a legitimate reason to be out of
class, such as a medical appoint-
ment, are not being targeted.
“We aren’t looking for kids like
that, but the ones hanging out
there who shouldn’t be,” he says.
“Now that schools are back from
holiday we’re pushing this pretty
hard.
“We’re putting up signs and once
we tell the shopkeepers what it’s
about it’s up to them to help us.
“Police officers will still be
patrolling shopping centres to
make sure there aren’t any school
pupils out and about.”
Getting on-board with the new
anti-truancy campaign is Highland
Park Shopping Centre manager
Bruce Waller.
He says truancy isn’t much of a
problem in Highland Park and he’s
keen to keep it that way.
“I will be holding meetings with
our tenants to inform and educate
them about this project.”
“We’re installing signs at the
shopping centre’s five entrances to
heighten their visibility.
“If the pupils know we are on
the lookout for things like this
[truancy] it won’t be much of a
problem.”
The crimes idle school pupils
sometimes commit include theft
and graffiti vandalism.
Mr Hotter estimates he returns
up to three truant pupils to schools
around East Auckland each
month.
He regularly visits Highland
Park Shopping Centre and patrols
its car park to ensure teenagers
aren’t spending time in the area
during the day.
“When I find a truant pupil I
put them in the back of the police
patrol car and return them to
school,” says Mr Hotter. “I talk to
staff at the student’s school and
they are happy for me to do that.
“I’m quite attached to most of
the schools in East Auckland and
don’t want to see kids not going
to class. They will thank me for it
later.”
Police constable Merv Hotter, left, and Highland Park Shopping Centre manager Bruce Waller are helping to make
East Auckland’s retail complexes free of school truants.
Times photo Wayne Martin
Child truancy crackdown Commuters embrace rail
PANMURE is now ranked the 10th busiest
railway station in the Auckland region, up
from the 18th last year.
Auckland Transport (AT) says bus-rail
integration is working well, with rail
patronage at Panmure up 57 per cent since
the new station opened in January, and a 73
per cent increase on the same time last year.
On average about 1116 passengers use
the station every day compared with less
than 100 a day in 2003.
The new $17.5 million interchange allows
easy and direct transfers between rail and
bus, benefiting those living and working in
the area, as well as those travelling through
Panmure as part of their daily commute, AT
says. Transfers now account for about 8 per
cent of all public transport boardings in the
super-city.
The interchange is part of AMETI
(Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport
Initiative), with future stages involving the
creation of busway lanes along Lagoon Drive
and Pakuranga Road to a new bus station
at Pakuranga Town Centre. Eventually the
busway is planned to extend along Ti Rakau
Drive to Botany Town Centre.
Stabbing suspect flees
POLICE say the suspect in an alleged
stabbing fled the crime scene before being
stopped and arrested.
A Counties Manukau Police spokesperson
says officers and St John Ambulance
paramedics were called to a house in
Redoubt Road, Flat Bush, at about 5pm last
Sunday. As police prepared to enter the
property, the male suspect left the scene in a
motor vehicle.
Police attempted to stop the driver, but he
fled and was pursued along Redoubt Road
toward the Southern Motorway.
The youth entered the motorway and
travelled north before stopping near the
Otahuhu/Princes Street interchange, where
he was arrested by police.
One person at the Redoubt Road home
police were initially called to was found to
have minor injuries.
The motor vehicle’s driver is being spoken
to by police.
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